Just beyond a strip of palm trees, the desert spreads out before me. The sight is much more in keeping with what most people think of Egypt than what I see most days. Between me and the little palmeraie, are the large panes of glass that let ample natural light into AUC's new campus library. I know I mentioned it last time, but this place really is gorgeous.
I hopped the Route #12 bus to the new campus this morning just in time to get here and get lost. The Humanities and Social Sciences (HUSS) building is not clearly marked on any of the maps around campus which in turn are unhelpful in that they don't have any sort of "You Are Here" indicator. Embarrassed, I resorted to calling the head of the Writing Center a total of three times to orient myself. Once I reached the actual building, I found that the numbering system made little sense. Ma3lesh. I found the professor I was looking for, he gave me the rundown on the Writing Center, and I was off to complete my next errand. Procuring a bus sticker was utterly painless and getting the process started for my student visa application was nearly as easy. The anticipatory knot in my stomach that manifests when I know I have to go to an office in Egypt gave way to a tentative satisfaction. AUC? Not so bad, right?
I ran into my Egyptian friend Reham on the way out of the administration building and strolled along with her, taking in the warm sun, the cool breeze, and the impressive architecture while catching up. When she headed to a bus to take her back to reality, I met up with an Iraqi-American friend who was involved with the International Affairs Organization and Model UN with me back at Bradley. She's studying here for the semester, taking classes on the history of the Middle East, Sufism, and Arabic. Over koshary—which after all of the horror stories of overpriced new campus food was comparable in price to what you'd pay downtown—I listened to Helen explain the novel sensation of being in a new place where she had such an affinity with the majority of people around her. She's eating up the mannerisms, the warmth, and the flowery phrases.
At one point, we popped into the library (whither we have returned) to grab a book for my thesis. I was overly impressed by the 3-M check-out machines. Now, I realize that all the cool kids have probably used these at their public and university libraries, but scanning my ID card and then laying my barcode-less unopened book on the apparatus to check it out seemed pretty space age. And at AUC no less. The self check-out machines and the ID-scanning posts at the one of the gates and at the library give a veneer of modern efficiency. So did the copy center that Helen had to stop by to get her course packets. That is, until she returned to pick them up and her order had mysteriously disappeared from the system. You can't win 'em all, I guess.
After today, I can't say I'm dreading coming to the new campus twice a week. Clean air and the lack of clutter are a welcome change from downtown. The construction in the library itself during regular hours today, however, keeps a little of that rustic, never-finished atmosphere. Feeling guilty about enjoying the place, remembering the misgivings friends who study urban planning and sociology and sustainability shared with me, I was relieved at the very least to find that the campus was designed to be low-impact and energy-efficient. This isolated desert community model, though, does seem as though it's draining the energy from the very heart of Cairo. Another blogger has this interesting entry that speaks about the trend and specifically about a community called Dreamland, coincidentally the first place I stayed in Egypt back in 2005.

News & Issues

Egypt
· Online radio station to be launched by activists affiliated with the party of opposition leader, Ayman Nour
· MPs debate definition of death in Shoura Council
· Foreign Ministry defends murder of African migrants (see also Bikya Masr article)

· In a country where a majority of women don headscarves, women who do so and seek access the haunts of the small upper class sometimes find themselves discriminated against. Increasing conservatism has made the practice more popular, but many in the élite reject it. When I returned to Egypt this last time, I noticed that EgyptAir's flight attendants were unveiled just as many many television personalities on state-owned channels are (though there's been a row over this). It's interesting that the government would seemingly be interested in showing a "modern" image of Egypt to the world while this image doesn't reflect the practices of the majority of Egyptians.

"Visit to 'King Tut Tomb' Found On Illinois Prairie Is Good Trip"

"Temple Mounds and Burying Grounds of Race Which Inhabited This State a Thousand Years Ago, to Be Seen Near Illinois River, 100 Miles From Decatur, Remind One of Pyramids of Egypt; Visit May Be Planned As An All-Day Trip" reads the byline of a news clipping without citation reprinted on a wall of the Dickson Mounds Museum. The institution is an hour or so from my mother's home in Peoria, Illinois. Who knew that my worlds were so much alike?

The museum, which details the history of the human inhabitants of central Illinois over the past 12,000 years, is situated on a burial mound. While the museum is cleaner and better run than the Egyptian Museum, its artifacts are neither as grand nor as numerous. The claim that the mounds remind one of the pyramids of Egypt is a bit grandiose, but another parallel is interesting. The Dickson Mounds Museum used to be known for providing the opportunity to see an excavated Native American burial site with the remains and artifacts left in tact, but in the early 1990s questions over whether the dignity of the deceased was slighted by the thousands of eyes upon them yearly led the site to be recovered and new exhibits installed in an attempt to compensate. In the 1980s, similar questions were being asked in regard to the mummies on display. Then-President Anwar Sadat, under clerical pressure, took the mummies off display and they remained so until some seven years later. It is interesting that the decision in Egypt has been ultimately to display the mummies (generating lots of revenue, I'm sure) while in Illinois, the remains have gone unseen for nearly two decades. An article from the time of the controversy over Dickson Mounds is an interesting read.

With traveling exhibitions like Bodyworlds and the grim bone art of the Sedlec Ossuary on one end of the spectrum and the decisions to cover the dead influenced by Islamic and Native American ideas about degnity and sacredness on the other, it certainly is something to think about.

News:
Egypt bans import and export of genetically modified foods. This decision, related to the broader debate over the safety of GMOs, has significant implications for trade. Egypt, one of the world's largest importers of wheat, recently found itself at odds with Russia over the questionable quality of imports.

Yale University Press has decided not to reprint cartoons depicting Muhammad in a book on "Cartoons that Shook the World" after consulting experts on Islam and counterterrorism.

Egypt is looking into claims that a marine posted at the US Embassy beat an Egyptian man who was inquiring after his American life who left him and took their children. Meanwhile, an Egyptian student at Penn State accused of raping two women has returned to Egypt. He is likely to face extradition if he does not return voluntarily.